Comic #1000: The End (Reality Bites: Part Nine) (Patreon)

I hadn't decided to end the comics until I was a couple episodes into this arc. Because of that, this one originally had a different ending. Initially it ended with Narya spinning the bracer and Krom yelling, "NO!" Which is pretty much how I ended the arc in #500, with Gigz threatening to start it all over again.

After I realized it would be the last comic, I knew I wanted a more meaningful ending, maybe something wholesome, like the whole gang running a dungeon. In the end I decided Krom doing the deed and letting Narya into the run was a nice send off. But I still needed to have him be a screw-up. It also gave me an opportunity to include Gigz healing Keydar's corpse, to mirror #1.

I actually initially had Donald in the fire, before I realized I had 7 guild members in the dungeon. I then panicked and decided Donald must be on the bench. Poor guy.

I struggled at first to figure out how to show they were truly back (for panel 2). The background is already fantasy, so I couldn't really do what I did in the last comic by having the background change. Then it occurred to me that I could just have Krom holding a damage meters that showed Narya at the bottom.

I don't know if it has really sunk in that this is the last one. I'd say I'm gonna miss drawing the characters, but I know I still have HUNDREDS of bonus panels to draw in the coming years, not to mention commentaries on old comics. So far I've made just under 150 bonus panels, so I have about 850 more to go. So though I won't have a weekly full comic on these characters, I'm still going to be drawing them in one-panel jokes twice a week. So I'll be truly done in... 8 more years? Good lord.